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EPA Faces Lawsuit to Force Airline Carbon Emissions Curbs

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Aug. 5, 2014, 6:07 a.m.

10:08 a.m. — A pair of en­vir­on­ment­al groups are plan­ning to sue EPA in an ef­fort to force reg­u­lat­ors to craft car­bon emis­sions rules for air­lines. “Be­cause of the sig­ni­fic­ant role that air­craft play in glob­al cli­mate change, and in light of the ex­po­nen­tial growth pro­jec­ted in air travel, the United States must lead the way in reg­u­lat­ing glob­al warm­ing pol­lut­ants from these sources,” states a form­al “no­tice of in­tent” to sue let­ter from the Cen­ter for Bio­lo­gic­al Di­versity and Friends of the Earth. Ac­cord­ing to the In­ter­na­tion­al Civil Avi­ation Or­gan­iz­a­tion, a branch of the United Na­tions, air­craft already are “es­tim­ated to con­trib­ute about 3.5 per cent of the total ra­di­at­ive for­cing (a meas­ure of change in cli­mate) by all hu­man activ­it­ies.” U.S. avi­ation ac­counts for a sub­stan­tial share. — Ben Ge­man